Martha's Adventure on the Moon
by transistor.robot
Summary: In which young Martha ignores everything she's ever been taught about Stranger Danger.


_This came from a prompt on tumblr for a story about the Doctor meeting one of his companions when they're a child. I couldn't resist._

Martha fancied herself a heroine. She'd read all the books. She knew what to do. She knew that she had whatever it was that you had to have in order to be a hero. The only thing was that none of it was actually happening to her.

It was, to be frank, incredibly frustrating. Which is why she'd taken it upon herself to go and find an adventure. After all, the heroes in the stories managed to stumble upon adventure nearly as often as it found them. And if something exciting wasn't going to happen to her, she was clever enough to go and find it on her own.

Which had led to this mess.

She'd been grounded all last week, after she'd been found trespassing in Mr Henry's garden. Her mother yelled at her for what felt like hours, then sighed and called it 'a phase'. Her dad called it 'bloody stupid'. Then her mum called her dad bloody stupid, and then of course Martha went off to go find something else to do.

Being grounded, of course, never stopped anyone in any of the stories, so Martha decided to go looking through the attic, in case there was anything mysterious in there. She never found out if there was anything mysterious in the attic, because she'd fallen off the fold-up attic stairs.

Which is why she was in hospital right now. Mum was pretty sure she'd broken her arm, but they were waiting for the results of the x-ray to confirm that. Martha hoped she didn't break her arm, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because she wanted to go back into the attic.

Martha thought about that for a while. She thought that maybe that meant that she was the sort of person who didn't give up on things, even when they're hard. She thought about what it might be like to be that sort of person. She decided that she liked it.

Her mum and little brother were with her, sitting at her bedside. Her little sister was at dance practice. Her brother had a Gameboy, which kept him quiet. Her mum was quiet, too, reading a magazine and trying not to make eye contact with the man in the bed next to Martha who clearly wanted someone to talk to.

Martha looked over at him. He looked back. Then he grinned at her. She couldn't help but smile back. He had a very nice smile.

Martha's mum then looked up from her magazine and asked her a question. The question didn't really matter, Martha knew. Her mum just didn't want her speaking to that man.

Then her little brother started moaning.

"Mum. Muum. I'm hungry."

That actually sounded like a good idea.

"I'm hungry, too."

"Sweetheart," Martha's mum said to her little brother, "I'd get you something, but you two can't stay here alone."

"I'll go with you," he replied.

Her mother looked back and forth between her and her brother. "Martha, do you mind, sweetheart? It'll only be five minutes. Look, I'll give you my magazine."

Martha didn't particularly want the magazine, but she took it anyway. She looked at a few pages, but it was all boring stuff about companies. And she couldn't really turn the pages well, not with her arm broken. She looked over at the man.

"So what'd you do?"

He saw her looking at him. Oh no. Martha didn't know if she should say anything. Her mum didn't want her to talk to him. But he had asked her a question, and he didn't seem very dangerous. So long as her mum didn't see her talking to him, it couldn't be too bad.

"I fell."

The man grinned again. "Oh yeah? Doing what?"

"Going into the attic."

The man's eyebrows briefly furrowed, as if he hadn't been expecting that. "What'd you do that for?"

Martha paused for a moment before deciding to tell the truth. It felt like talking to a teacher. Maybe he was a teacher.

"I was looking for something mysterious."

The man clearly liked that answer. His grin somehow managed to get even bigger, and pointing at her, he replied, "That, that's a good answer. That's the best answer."

That bit of praise made Martha feel a bit bolder. After mustering up a bit of courage, she went ahead and asked the man why he was in hospital.

He looked around the room, as if he was about to tell a secret. "I'm looking for something mysterious," he replied.

Martha didn't know what to say. He was looking for mysteries. He was an adult, so maybe he knew more about these things than she did.

The man was looking out the window onto the rainy street and frowning. Then his face lit up. "Oh, there it is."

"What is?"

"Something mysterious."

Maybe this, Martha wondered, is the start of an adventure.


End file.
